Last fall, when I made a bunch of pumpkin puree from our Halloween Jack o Lanterns, I was inspired to make all these pumpkin goodies. The recipe that caught my interest in my search was pumpkin gnocchi. Gnocchi are soft dumplings usually made of potatoes and flour. It just so yummy. What’s funny is that we can never pronounce gnocchi correctly. Guh-noki?, Nyo-chi? My bf, Yip gave up and by default he says guh-noogie 🙂
So recently, I bought a can of pumpkin puree and made gnocchi again, following Closet cooking’s recipe. I love the color and the hint of pumpkin flavor. The dough is really sticky, so I used more flour than what the recipe calls for. It takes a long time to shape the little pieces of dough, especially since I want markings on each piece. For some reason, I had a hard time rolling pieces of dough with the fork, but Yip picked it up really fast (he is the better cook) and showed me. Now I can whip through the whole batch and have the patience to finish the job. Warning…making gnocchi is very time consuming, so you may want to shape half the dough and the other half the next day. But it is a fun activity with the help of little ones or big friends too.
Since it’s usually the two of us, we freeze the gnocchi separately and place them in a zip lock bag. When ready to eat, place however much in boiling water and cook in a sauce. Gnocchi tastes so good and a great alternative to our usual boring spaghetti.
2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg yolk
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 pinch nutmeg (optional)
Directions:
1. Simmer pumpkin puree in a sauce pan to absorb some wetness and let it cool.
2. Mix egg yolk into the puree.
3. Combine salt, nutmeg, and flour together.
4. Add flour mixture into the puree to form a soft sticky dough.
5. Take pieces of dough and roll out into long ropes about 1/2 inch thick.
6. Cut the rolled ropes into 1/2 inch pieces and then roll the pieces in flour lightly shaking off any excess.
7. Roll the pieces with a fork (or gnocchi board) to give them the ridges.
8. Cook desired amount of gnocchi in boiling water until it floats to the surface, about 2-3 minutes. Remove and drain.
9. Cook in a sauce or fry.
I made a tomatoe sauce with spicy Italian sausage, mushrooms, onion and asparagus on the side, topped with cilantro and Parmesan cheese :9
Look at the cute little pumpkin hats I made for the cats:)
sweet ipomoea 